He Calls His Sheep by NameJohn 10:1-10

Bible Thought: "To him the gatekeeper opens; the sheep hear
his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them
out" (John 10:3).

During the time of Jesus, shepherds would often
leave their sheep in sheepfolds for safety overnight.
Now a sheepfold was a walled enclosure with a door
in it, and it usually had no roof. Several flocks would
be kept in one sheepfold with one shepherd guarding the
door. Each shepherd knew his own sheep and
his sheep knew him. Jesus even tells us in John
10:3 that when a shepherd entered in the morning,
he would call his own sheep by name.
By name! Think about that for a minute. The
shepherd knows each sheep individually and knows
his name. Now when Jesus talked about the shepherd
and his sheep, he was really talking about
himself and his followers. In John 10:14 he explained,
"I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my
own know me." Jesus knows me and you and all his
sheep, and more than that, he knows us all by name.
How comforting!
"All we like sheep had gone astray
until the shepherd came.
He brought us to the one sheepfold,
and there he calls our name."

Hymn: "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us."

Father, thank you for sending your Son Jesus to become our
shepherd—a shepherd who knows us by name and who loves
us enough to lay down his life for us. In his name. Amen.